HIGHMORE Hedgehogs’ Kingsley Gray was crowned cutest kid in the Hereford Times 2013 Baby of the Year competition.

Turning three next week, Kingsley’s proud mum Layla Griffiths said it was a lovely surprise ahead of his party.

As well as scooping the prestigious Hereford Times silver salver – which the young winner proudly hung on to after a presentation by HT editor Fiona Phillips – the family also won a professional photo shoot with Picture Perfect worth £1,750.

And those new shots will feature Kingsley’s new look; with the curls that charmed the judges now gone in favour of some go-faster spikes.

Having never entered Kingsley in the competition before, newsagent Layla admitted she was a little nervous looking around at the younger finalists – but Kingsley’s beaming granddad Kevin Griffiths was more confident.

“He gets his looks from me I suppose,” he joked.

The family of the 10-18 month age group winner, Harvey Lloyd, drove all the way back from their holiday in Blackpool to pick up their award – and complimentary family photoshoot worth £1,000.

“He’s changed so much since his photo last year,” said Steph. “It will be really nice to have another picture, last year he was sleeping through it – and he still made the final.”

This year’s youngest agegroup winner was 11-month-old Violet Davies, also from Hereford, and new parents Graham and Laura Davies plan on giving her pictures pride of place in their living room.

“We wanted to have something as a keepsake,” said Graham. “We keep a scrapbook with photos of Violet – but she’s changing so fast.”

Violet was totally unfazed by the extra attention, which did not surprise her mum.

Laura said people often stop her in the street to coo over Violet.

She added: “Violet knows how to work her cheeky smile to make friends with people – she’s no shrinking violet.”